Broadband News

Global Broadband subscribers on the rise

Point Topic has today published its analysis for the global DSL market up to Q4 2006. These latest
figures put the total number of broadband subscribers at 281.3 million, a 31% increase over 2005. France achieved the highest growth in subscribers within the 'top 10 broadband countries' (based on
number of lines). The UK saw a 33% increase, slightly above the global average, from 9,828,900 to 13,116,600 subscribers. The breakdown of the top 10 is as follows:

Country

Number of broadband lines Q4 2005

Number of broadband lines Q4 2006

USA

46,110,191

57,330,216

China

37,504,000

51,899,000

Japan

22,647,830

26,095,919

Germany

10,706,648

14,660,084

South Korea

12,199,666

14,042,698

France

9,958,086

13,983,900

UK

9,828,900

13,116,600

Italy

6,977,404

8,826,803

Canada

6,854,994

7,876,487

Spain

4,853,388

6,726,756

The order of the top 10 has stayed fairly constant to last year with Germany just managing to squeeze
in front of South Korea, and Italy jumping in front of Canada. Also to note is how users are connecting to broadband services, with DSL accounting for a 65.7% market share and fibre, encompassing
fibre to the home as well as to other nearby distribution points (FTTx), 10%.

Comments

The UK when it comes to broadband with its terrible speeds silly Fair use schemes etc etc shouldnt even really be in the same table let alone mentioned in the same gasp of air as some of the countrys in this list. Our so called broadband compared to some in that list is like dial-up.

CARPETBURN

over 10 years ago

Trouble is this table is like the satisfaction/complaints one, no account taken of national population. Two things would change if it was expressed proportionally, the positions and the percentage changes.

uniquename

over 10 years ago

Taking population figures from http://www.photius.com/rankings/population/population_2006_0.html and calculating the percentage we rank above many of those above us in the table.

jelv

over 10 years ago

Yes, would make more sense to include number of lines as % of population, also perhaps a separate table to rank average available line speeds.

giverny

over 10 years ago

South Korea is the most impressive: approximately one connection for every 4 inhabitants ?

(It reminds of when Estonia joined the European Song Contest and almost half the telepnones in the country called up to vote).

harryhound1

over 10 years ago

What is perhaps even more interesting than the current level of connections, is the relative growth rates. Top of that league table is France with 40% year on year, followed by Spain 39% and China on 38%. The UK is in the middle on 33%, ahead of Italy 27% and the USA on 24% with Japan, South Korea and Canada all trailing at 15%.

If these relative growth rates are held for next year then China will have taken over from the USA as top of the installations league table, whilst UK will have overtaken South Korea to end up one place higher at no. 6.